Podcast Intro I just published the latest newsletter a few minutes ago. If you’re signed up for it and it hasn’t hit your inbox, check your spam folder. And then whitelist it. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you definitely should. Go to news.lifespringmedia.com. Our reading today is Job. Chapters 3 and 4, I’ll give you some of my thoughts on those chapters, and then, there’s the “On This Day In Church History” segment, and we will have some “Prayer Requests” at the end of the show. Thoughts On Job Job Chapter 3 One of the best indicators of one’s strength of character, and relationship with God is how we deal with hardship. Do we collapse like a house of cards or do we rise up, steel ourselves, ask the Lord for wisdom and strength, and keep on keepin’ on? How we react to circumstances is a choice. We decide. As chapter three opens, Job has just lost nearly everything; most of his wealth, his children and his health. And his wife has told him to curse God and die. He doesn’t have much more to lose. Remember, satan wins if Job does curse God. That was his challenge. And so with the opening of chapter three, we have the opening salvo in the battle for Job’s mind and soul. Will he curse God? Will he fold? How will he decide to deal with his great loss? The physical and emotional pain he’s in? How will he think about what others think about him? What will he think about God in light of his circumstances? Most of the remainder of this book that bears his name will reveal the answers to these questions. We’ll see Job’s character and his relationship with God. And maybe we can learn from Job, so that when we face loss and pain (as everyone does) we’ll be better prepared to make choices for our reactions that will glorify God.  As the chapter opens, Job curses the day he was born, and the night that he was conceived. Given his present suffering, he would rather have never existed. That makes me think of the Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”. You know the story. Stewart’s character George Bailey, a good man who is loved by his wife, his kids and most of the little town he lives in, comes into some tough times through no fault of his own. And in the depths of feeling sorry for himself he says, “I wish I had never been born.” And so an angel arranges for his wish to come true, and then proceeds to show George how the world would have been much worse off without him. It’s a good movie that the Lovely Lady LeeAnn watch nearly every year. So Job is admittedly much worse off than George Bailey, and he has quite a lot to say in the midst of his misery. It’s really pretty pathetic, but you have to have some empathy for him if you’ve ever been in a hard place. I’m not making light at all of his circumstances. He really let it out.  But he did not curse God.  Can you imagine the enemy’s frustration? Hah! Job Chapter 4 So after Job speaks for awhile, one of the three friends who have come to sit with him decides that he can’t take it anymore. He’s got to say something.  Don’t you just love it when someone starts a conversation with you by saying, “Can I say something to you without you getting mad?” You know it’s going to be one of *those* conversations. That’s how Eliphaz began h